


Who We've Yet to Become

by weasleytook



Category: Push (2009), X-Men (Movies), X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Crossover, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-29
Updated: 2014-08-29
Packaged: 2018-02-14 00:22:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2170938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weasleytook/pseuds/weasleytook
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been a nearly a year of searching for Kira, but when Nick and Cassie finally find her, she's in a surprising place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Who We've Yet to Become

**Author's Note:**

  * For [a_q](https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_q/gifts).



> I really loved so many of the fandoms you chose, but this is the crossover that I just HAD to write! I wanted it to be a lot more action-packed, but alas words failed me on that front. I truly hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Thanks to J for the beta and support! :)

“Wake up. Come on, Nick. Wake up, NOW."

Nick feels a hard shove on his shoulder and opens one eye just barely. He sees a mess of blonde hair with purple streaks in front of him and not much else. “It’s still dark out.”

“Which means you need to get up _now_. Before the Sniffs that are in town find us and before – before –“

Nick opens both eyes now and turns on the lamp. “Before what?”

Cassie holds out her book, and it’s a crude sketch, but it is definitely Kira that she’s drawn. “Before we lose her again.”

 

*

 

They gather everything they have and get the hell out of Gdansk as quickly as possible. It’s where they’ve been safely tucked in for the past month, but safe only lasts so long for them. A week here, a month there, three weeks somewhere else. And it all adds up to nearly ten months since they last saw Kira in Hong Kong.

Cassie sees Kira in visions, but she doesn’t seem to stay in one place long enough for them to find her. They only have three priorities anymore: stay alive, find Kira, find Cassie’s mom; and they’re lucky they’ve been able to do the first one.

It takes almost two days of travel to get them to their destination, and even in the taxi on the last leg there, Nick has doubts.

“Do you really think she’d come _here_? After everything, Coney Island would be the most obvious place for Division to look for us, so why risk it?”

“I just see what I see. I can’t even attempt to figure out what’s going on in that girl’s brain.”

“You don’t think it’s a trap?” He wants so badly to trust Kira again, but he knows he needs to keep his guard up.

“I didn’t see _that_ , so we’re probably safe. For now.”

They don’t speak again until the driver drops them off in front of the cheesy motel Cassie saw in her vision. Nick opens the door to the office and finds a red-haired girl behind the counter who looks like she’s barely old enough to work there.

He takes a small picture of himself and Kira out of his wallet, from some photo booth somewhere in what seems like another life. “This girl in the picture with me? Have you seen her around here?”

The girl scrutinizes the picture, then turns her gaze to Nick for just a moment. He expects an answer or a change of her expression, but what he gets is her eyes turning to Cassie instead. “Blonde girl, colorful streaks in her hair, about thirteen, right?”

Cassie stands a little taller and responds, “ _Fourteen_ , actually.”

“The girl, she wanted me to ask you – what color were the stars?”

Nick turns his head sharply and looks at Cassie, who quickly digs into her bag for her book. Kira left a message for Cassie, not him, and he’s not sure if he should be hurt or grateful they’re in the right place.

Cassie opens up to the picture she drew of Kira a few days ago and points at it, “Green starfish. It’s the wallpaper in the rooms here. Right?”

The girl nods and reaches beneath her desk for something, a slip of paper that she slides across the desk towards Cassie. “She was here, for a few days and then she suddenly left a couple days ago with a couple of men. She said to ask you that question if you showed up and then give you the address where you can find her.”

Cassie looks at the address and it’s somewhere else in New York , upstate if she had to guess. “Men?”

“Yeah, some old, bald dude in a fancy wheelchair and a younger, super hot guy who never took his sunglasses off.”

Nick exchanges a glance with Cassie and gives her a slight shrug. He feels just as confused as she looks so he asks the girl, “Did it look like she was going willingly?”

“Oh, totally. They seemed super friendly.”

They thank the girl as they walk back outside and Cassie hands the slip of paper over to him as he says, “So why would Kira give you this and not me?”

“Because any guy could walk in there with a picture of her, and it could be a Division agent. But there’s only one teenage girl with colorful hair looking for her.”

“And how did she know you’d have a vision of her in _that_ room with _that_ wallpaper?”

Cassie digs into her bag to find her map of New York state and shrugs her shoulders. “Now that’s a question only she can answer.”

 

*

 

They take a bus two hours upstate and then another taxi to the address Kira left for them. When they pull up to the sprawling estate with the enormous mansion on it, they both have to check the address three times to see if it’s correct.

Cassie breaks the silence and asks, “Uhhh, is Kira some kind of secret billionaire, and I didn’t know it?”

Nick shakes his head and points at the sign on the gate. “It’s some kind of school, I guess.”

She reads the sign and says, “Gifted youngsters, huh?”

Nick’s about to make a joke about her being a gifted youngster but she elbows him in the side before he gets the words out. “Don’t even go there,” she mutters.

He grins at her and then steps forward to hit the button on the call-box. They are quickly told that Kira will be waiting for them at the door, and Nick guesses that maybe Cassie isn’t the only psychic on the premises since they don’t even ask who’s there.

They make their way up the long driveway to the mansion and exchange a few nervous glances before they get close. This place is almost frighteningly huge.

“You’re still sure this isn’t a trap?”

“Well, there’s a first time for everything, but usually I would know –“

“Thanks Cassie, that’s _almost_ comforting.”

The door opens before they even get a chance to find the doorbell, much less ring it, and Kira is there looking like the Kira he used to know and not the Division Agent she looked like when he last saw her.

She looks tired and pale, but she still manages the slightest of smiles. “You made it.”

He wants nothing more than to take her in his arms, but he has too many questions and he’s still not entirely sure she didn’t lure them there because Division forced her into it. Nick doesn’t know what to say or even where to begin, but he doesn’t need to because Cassie pipes up with, “Okay, lovebirds, save the googly eyes for later because I have a _ton_ of questions. What the hell is this place? What are you doing here? And how did you know I’d have a vision about the green starfish?”

“I’ll explain everything. Just come in.”

Nick knows maybe he’s being a little paranoid but he still has to ask. “And how do we know you didn’t bring us here to hand us over to your pals at Division?”

Kira sighs heavily and looks back towards Cassie. “Because _she_ would have seen it.”

Cassie elbows him again, much harder than the last time, “See? I told you.”

He smiles at Kira, even though he doesn’t want to. And he follows her inside, but he’s not sure he wants to do that either. Kira leads them down a hallway where a few kids around Cassie’s age are milling about, and he relaxes a little. So maybe it really is a school.

She takes him into an office, and there behind the desk is the man he assumes the motel clerk was referring to when she said “old bald guy in a wheel chair.” Standing next to him is the “hot younger guy” in the sunglasses, who motions for them to sit in the three chairs positioned on the other side of the desk.

There is an awkward quiet moment as they sit, and finally, the bald man gives them a warm smile and says, “Nick, Cassie, I’m Professor Charles Xavier, and this is Scott Summers.”

Nick shifts uncomfortably and replies, “I don’t remember enrolling this semester, so will someone enlighten me as to what the hell we’re doing here?”

Scott grins and pulls up his own chair. “Get comfortable because this is going to take a while.”

They start at the beginning, or almost the beginning. Xavier explains everything about mutants to them (at least the short version), and tells them about the school and who and what the X-Men are and by the time he and Scott get to the end of their very long speech, Nick feels like he’s had a Bleeder scream in his ear for a few seconds. His head is pounding and he still has so many questions.

He doesn’t even get a chance to open his mouth before Cassie starts in, “So we’re mutants?”

Xavier nods. “Yes, essentially. From what we’re learning about you, your DNA is different from say mine or Scott’s, due to the experiments run on your parents, but you are mutants. Division has been attempting to strengthen the powers of mutants, to weaponize them, and part of that was to alter the mutant genes in your DNA. And what they did to your parents was passed down to you as well.”

“And how did Kira end up here? And why are we here?”

“I have a device called Cerebro that helps me detect others like us. Because of your unique DNA, I didn’t detect Kira until she arrived here in New York last week, but I sensed that she needed help. Cassie, you got that specific vision because I sent it to you with my own powers. And you’re here because I want to help you too.”

Nick takes his turn to speak up, “Help us how?”

“We want to stop Division, once and for all. They’ve operated in secret for so long but with the help of the three of you and our team, we think we can shut them down.”

It’s clear by his expression that Xavier isn’t treating this like Division is a fly he has to swat. He looks truly angry when he speaks of them, and it instantly makes Nick want to trust him.

Nick sits back in his chair and tries to let it all soak in. He’s never known what it would be like to live in a world without Division. He doesn’t know what safe even feels like, but it’s something he’s wanted for so long, and now he wants it for Kira and Cassie too. Maybe when you’re different like they are, you’re never really going to be safe, but at least they’d be _safer_.

A thought comes to him and he turns to look at Kira, “And you’re, what, joining the team now?”

“Not exactly. But I do need their help. My powers are - ” She pauses, her shoulders stiffen, and Nick can see a flash of pain in her eyes. “Out of control. I came here because Cassie’s mom told me I would someday need to, and that I could trust them.”

Cassie sits straight up in her chair and looks at Xavier, “You knew my mother?”

“Many, many years ago, long before you were born she stayed here briefly. She was very powerful, even then.”

She’s tough most of the time, like a thirty year old in the body of a teenager, but it’s moments like this when he sees how vulnerable she really is. “I have so many questions about her. I don’t even know where to start.”

“We will get to them all eventually, if you choose to stay. But it’s getting late, and I’m sure you’re all hungry and tired, so, Scott?”

 

*

 

Scott takes them on a short tour of the house, makes sure they get dinner and then passes them off to a petite brunette he calls Kitty.

Kitty shows them to their rooms, with Kira and Cassie sharing one across the hall from Nick. She opens the door to Nick’s room. It’s small, but clean and comfortable looking.

“It’s old servant’s quarters from when this place actually had those,” she explains. “If you guys choose to stay, we’ll find you more permanent rooms in another part of the house.”

He doesn’t bother to tell her that even in the servant’s quarters, this is the nicest room he’s lived in for years.

“So, what’s _your_ fancy super power?”

Kitty grins and walks through the solid wall next to him, turns and comes right back through it. “I do that. Among other things.”

“Wow. Cool.” It’s the only two words he can muster, but it’s two more words than he’s been able to come up with when he learned about other powers earlier in the day, so at least it’s progress. He’s spent his whole life thinking there were a finite number of abilities people like him could have, but this is a whole other world.

“Scott noticed you guys didn’t bring much with you, so there are extra clothes and stuff in both rooms if you need them. If you need anything else, I’m right upstairs.”

“Right. Thanks.”

She makes a quick exit, though the floor even and Nick can’t help but like her just for showing off a little. He looks across the hall and Kira is there, just as quiet as she has been most of the day.

“I know, Nick. We have a million things to talk about. And we will. Tomorrow.”

He nods and turns around, muttering a good night before he shuts the door behind him. He thinks even as cushy as this place is, he’ll probably be up all night wondering about Kira, but he falls asleep just seconds after he settles in.

 

*

 

A loud pounding on his door shakes him right out of sleep, and that’s when he hears the screaming accompanying it. He runs to the door and finds a frantic looking Cassie, and he quickly realizes the screams are coming from Kira across the hall.

“What is happening?”

“She’s having some kind of nightmare, and I can’t get her to wake up.”

Nick runs to her room and Kira is sitting straight up in bed, eyes closed but still screaming. He uses his powers to throw a nearby glass of water in her face and she immediately stops, opens her eyes and begins blinking rapidly in shock.

Cassie rolls her eyes and sits at the end of her own bed. “That’s your solution? I could have done that.”

He sits on the bed next to Kira and she immediately falls into his arms. “Could have, but didn’t.”

Kitty must have phased right through the ceiling above to get here because suddenly she’s in the doorway and close behind is some scruffy guy with weird facial hair and a scowl.

“Is everything okay?”

Nick nods but holds Kira tighter. “Nightmares, I guess. Sorry if she woke you up.”

The scowling guy mutters, “Me, her, the whole damn mansion probably.”

Kitty just waves a hand to dismiss him and looks at Kira, “Well, you’ll probably be happy to hear that Hank, err, Dr. McCoy called. He’ll be here by lunchtime tomorrow and ready to see you right away.”

Kira says a quiet thank you and Kitty and the other guy leave them alone. Nick knows they should try and get some sleep, but he can’t let the questions wait any longer. “Dr. McCoy? What is this all about?”

She wipes some of the water off her face and looks at Cassie then back to Nick. “I came here to see if they could, I don’t know, cure me.”

Cassie frowns at her. “Cure you of what? There’s nothing wrong with you, besides being a pain in the –“

“I want to get rid of my powers. Professor Xavier said they could teach me to control them, but I don’t want that. I can’t – I just can’t deal with them anymore. And this Dr. McCoy thinks he might be able to fix me.”

Nick gently strokes her back. It’s not as if he has never thought about what it would be like if he didn’t have his power, and he’s sure Cassie has thought about it too. But it’s kept him alive, kept them all alive, and he’s not sure he could ever give it up.

“Are you sure you really want that?”

She starts crying almost immediately, the kind of crying that makes her whole body shake and he’s not sure what to do. When she can finally speak again, she looks at them both and nods. “You guys don’t know what I’ve been through. I have done terrible things. _Terrible_ things.”

Cassie interjects, “To people who deserved them.”

“Not all of them. And no one deserves to have their free will taken away from them like that. I can’t sleep because I have nightmares every night, I’m afraid to even use my ability because I’ll lose control and I can’t stop thinking of every person I’ve hurt and I just – I need it to stop. Your powers help people, and mine just hurt and kill.”

Nick and Cassie share a look. Kira’s power is something neither of them can understand and they haven’t been through what she has. But it still seems _wrong_. They’re in a house full of people with abilities beyond his imagination and surely they can help Kira.

He pulls the covers over the both of them and lays with her, deciding that there’s no way he can leave her tonight. “Kira, I don’t know what this McCoy guy is going to tell you or what he can do for you, but you’re not sick or broken and you don’t need to be fixed.”

She grabs his hand and as Nick listens to the sounds of Cassie getting back in to her own bed, Kira says quietly, “I wish that were true.”

 

*

 

The rest of the night is mostly calm, occasionally she whimpers or twitches in her sleep, but when Nick puts a calming hand on her shoulder or back, it eases her and she can sleep again. They wake in the morning and he feels tired still, but eager to get on with whatever this doctor is going to tell them.

After a quick breakfast, Cassie heads off with a guy named Bobby who is supposed to take her to sit in on some classes. It makes Nick smile, just the thought of Cassie getting to go to school and having friends her own age and maybe being _normal_ for the first time. At least as normal as life in a school for mutants could ever be.

Nick and Kira leave the table and are greeted by a tall, red-haired woman who introduces herself as Jean. She leads them downstairs and to Hank’s lab. Before she opens the door she pauses and looks at them seriously, “I just want to warn you that Hank doesn’t exactly look like the rest of us. He’s used to the shocked reactions, but I always try to warn new people anyway.”

Nick and Kira exchange a confused glance and then follow her inside where they’re greeted by a rather cheerful blue furry man with animal-like features. Nick doesn’t flinch or react and he notices that Kira doesn’t either, she just steps forward and gently shakes his hand.

Jean leaves, and Hank wastes no time getting down to the reason why they’re here. “Charles has briefed me on your history and why you've come here, and I have some good news and bad news.”

Nick takes a seat on a stool across from him and replies, “Well, get to it.”

“I can’t take away your abilities permanently. But I can suppress them. I invented a serum many years ago that would stop a mutant’s powers from working, but it does wear off.”

Kira nods in understanding and asks, “Which means?”

“You would have to take injections, on a schedule, for the rest of your life.”

“Okay, let’s do it.”

Nick reaches out and puts his hand on her arm. “Kira, don’t you want some time to think about this?”

She shakes her head, smiles at him, and he understands. It’s clear that she’s thought about little else for most of her life. “I can’t do this anymore. I don’t want to. Maybe if I had your power or if I was like Kitty or Bobby, I would want to stay that way, but I can’t be like this anymore. And if you love me, you’ll let me make my own choice.”

His hand slips down and clasps hers. “I do love you.”

“And you’ll still love me when I’m just normal, boring, powerless Kira, right?”

He nods, and she leans over to give him a brief kiss before turning back to look at Hank. Hank looks solemn and says, “I understand both of your positions on this. I was once like you, Kira, and didn’t want to be what I was, but I accept it now and maybe someday you will too. However, I will do this for you, if it’s what you really want.”

“When do we start?”

His mouth turns from a straight line into a slight smile. “Because of the different mutations in your DNA, I’ll need to tailor the original formula to you specifically.  
So once I take a few blood samples from you, it should take about three or four weeks.”

She looks a little lost so Hank continues, “I know it’s not what you wanted, but all of you are welcome to stay here as long as you like. Charles has plenty of room.”

Nick chuckles and says, “That’s an understatement.”

He sits quietly and watches as Hank sits Kira down to take some blood samples. Part of him wonders if this is a scheme between Hank and Xavier to keep Kira here longer, to get information about Division from her, and maybe to change her mind about her powers. If it is, he’s all for it.

 

*

 

When they see Cassie again at dinner, she won’t shut up. That’s nothing new, but now it’s all about how great everything is and it’s refreshing. She’s always going to be mature for her age, but this is the most like a teenager she’s ever been in front of him.

“ – and Professor Xavier was like ‘come to me to talk about your mother anytime’, and I guess Dr. McCoy knew her too, and Professor Logan, he’s the guy who was at our door last night, I think he knew her too. And you know what? That guy is some kind of living legend. He’s like two hundred years old so he’s seen _everything_.”

“Is he always that cranky?” Nick asks over a forkful of mashed potatoes.

“Kitty and Rogue said he grows on you, but Scott says he doesn’t. I guess he teaches history, because well, he actually lived it. And Professor Xavier said they can help me get better at using my power and that I could be as good as my mom someday if I work at it.”

“Can they make you a better artist?” That makes Kira smile, but Cassie just rolls her eyes and flicks a pea from her plate at Nick, who uses his own power to toss it back at her.

“Actually, smart guy, they can. One of the guys here, Piotr, is some kind of artist when he’s not busy doing hero type business.”

She continues to go on about everything else she experienced today, and Nick and Kira just share a smile. There’s no doubt in his mind that Cassie wants to stay, and where Cassie goes he goes. He owes her his life, a few times over, and as long as Division is still out there and she’s separated from her mother, he just can’t leave her. If Cassie’s staying, so is he.

Now, he just needs to convince Kira.

 

*

 

The weeks pass by slowly, probably too slow for Kira, but not slow enough for him. They get moved to better rooms closer to everyone else, and by Kira’s request, her and Nick stay together so someone will be there when the nightmares come. Cassie starts attending regular classes, and even though she’s still the same pain in the ass she’s always been, she’s more content than he’s ever seen her.

Kira spends a lot of time with Xavier and Scott, telling them every thing she knows about Division. At first, she’s afraid to let Xavier into her head because he might see some of the terrible things she’s done and change his mind about helping her. But after assuring her that he’s seen the very worst of humanity, she allows him to use her powers to find out secrets she didn’t even know she was carrying.

Nick stays busy too. He trains with Jean, who shows him ways to use his powers that he never even thought of and he wonders how much further along he would be if he had grown up here too. He trains in the Danger Room regularly and spends a lot of time learning all about the inner workings of this whole X-Men team.

It’s a whole new world to him. It’s people with a _purpose_. His one purpose has always been to survive, not to thrive or help others or change the world, just trying to live day to day and not get murdered or locked up in some Division lab.

He knows it’s not all rainbows and kittens, and it’s still a dangerous life, but it’s the safest he’s ever known. It means if he dies, it’s not alone and it’s in the act of doing something good. Nick hasn’t done a lot of good in his life, off the top of his head he can count exactly two things and nothing more.

Nick isn’t just staying because Cassie is anymore. He _wants_ to stay.

 

*

 

It’s a few days past the four weeks when they come back to their room after dinner and find a note on their door. It’s from Hank telling Kira that the treatment is ready and to meet him in the lab at eight in the morning.

Kira practically bounces into the room, and Nick still doesn’t entirely understand her reasoning, but he wants nothing more than to see her happy.

“You still want to do this, huh?”

“You thought being here for a month with people like us would change my mind?”

He can’t deny that was his thought process so he just sits on the edge of the bed and shrugs. Kira joins him and puts her head on his shoulder with a sigh. “I’m sorry. I see how happy Cassie is, and I see how well you fit in here, and I wish I could feel that way. You both look like you’ve had a weight lifted from your shoulders and I don’t feel that way. I don’t know if I ever will, but I know it will be better if I go through with this.”

Nick goes over her words in his head and it’s almost annoying how well he knows her. “You’re leaving aren’t you?”

Her head lifts up and she looks caught. “Nick…”

He moves away from her a little, which is his way of resisting the temptation to just leave the room. “Always running away, right? I don’t get it. Things are good here, better than we’ve ever had it. And it doesn’t matter if you have powers, they’ll let you stay.”

“I know. I know all this. I just have to go. I _have_ to. And I know you won’t understand, even if I tell you why.”

“You’d rather be out there, alone, without your powers, where Division can just snatch you up, than here with me. You’re right, I’ll never understand.”

She smiles and it hurts him. He wants her happiness, but he wants her happy _here_. Her hand reaches out to stroke the short hairs at the back of his neck. “Hey, you and the X-Men are going to take care of Division for me, I know you will. But I have to do this. I have to figure out who I am away from this world, and I have family out there who probably think I’m dead. But I’ll be back, eventually.”

“Will you?”

“I have no choice. I don’t think Hank will let me leave here with a lifetime supply of the serum.”

Nick frowns at her, and she leans in to kiss him on his jaw. “And of course, I’m coming back for you. Even Cassie has grown on me since we’ve been here.”

He laughs softly and replies, “Yeah, she would never admit it, but she likes you too. So, nothing I can say will convince you to stay?”

She shakes her head then moves in to kiss him on the lips this time. He wraps his arms around her and returns the kiss with all the passion he can muster. It’s not that he thinks a kiss can convince her to stay, but if this is a goodbye, he wants to make it a good one.

 

*

 

He wants to go with her when she gets her treatment, but he’s called to a training exercise in the Danger Room instead. He’s going on his first mission with the team the following day, some emergency in Kenya where one of their team members has been visiting with family. Nick tells Kira he can show up late to training but she _insists_ that he go.

It ends up being six hours of intense training and strategizing for their mission in Kenya, and by the time he’s out of there, it’s well past lunch. He immediately runs upstairs to see if Kira is in their room, and all he finds is a note.

Of course. He should have known. That was just her way. It probably should have hurt more than it did, but deep down he understood that they had said their goodbyes the night before.

He doesn’t get a chance to read the note because he sees Hank coming down the hallway towards him. “I heard that she left. You’re not going to follow her, are you?”

“She wouldn’t want me to, and I don’t want to leave everything here.”

“Good. Because I hear from Jean and Scott that you’re going to be a real asset to the team.”

Nick nods appreciatively. “At least once I figure out how to keep the costume from riding up.”

Hank laughs and pats him on the shoulder. “We would rather you call it a suit, not a costume.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Nick hears the familiar stomping noise of Cassie’s boots coming up the stairs and when she reaches the hallway, she looks at him sadly. “Hey, Kitty just told me. I’m so sorry.”

She comes towards him and throws her arms around his middle. Nick smiles and returns her hug. “She’ll be back.”

Cassie steps back and grins at him. “And you’re the psychic now?”

Hank interjects, “I only gave her enough serum to last about a year, so she’ll definitely be back.”

Nick smiles at her and sticks the note in his back pocket to read later. “She’ll be back for other reasons too. Now, I missed lunch and I’m starving. So why don’t you go down to the kitchen with me and you can show me your new sketches while I make a sandwich. Care to join, Hank?”

“Absolutely.”

The three of them head for the stairs and he finds his heart doesn’t hurt as much as he expected it to. Not because he won’t miss her, but because he’s home. Finally, home. And someday he knows Kira will be too.


End file.
